State eases rules to give realtors a ‘gift'

Two government wings on Thursday hastily amended regulations regarding gifting land and setting aside land for the poor. The amendments were made following the slump in the real-estate sector, said the principal secretary, Mr S.P. Singh, municipal administration and urban development (Maud) department. As per the amendments, developers will not be required to "gift" five per cent of the developed area to Huda. They will instead be required to pay 1.5 times the basic value of the land. The earlier rule stipulated that the five per cent land was meant "for disposal for residential/commercial use." This has been amended to "provision of master plan facilities." This condition will be applicable to sites located outside the GHMC limits.

The amendments will also be applicable to the development promotion regulations of Hyderabad Airport Development Authority master plan. Developers see this as a ploy by the government to avoid legal complications as the provision for "gifting" land as such is against the Constitution. The amendments also brought down the reservation of land for housing from 10 to five per cent. A new provision was added under group housing schemes wherein the developers will be required to part with three per cent of land to Huda. The land to be reserved for low income group housing has been brought down from 10 to five per cent. The requirement for reservation of land for housing for middle income groups has been done away with. Builders have been given scope to develop land for Economically Weaker Section houses within a five-km radius of the existing site. Incentives have been provided in the form of waiver of fees and other charges on EWS plots or dwelling units.

Indiramma: value of land enhanced

HYDERABAD: The Government has decided to enhance the compensation to families surrendering land for Indiramma housing programme in Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam, East and West Godavari districts by 100-150 per cent.

A decision to this effect was taken by Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy while reviewing Indiramma housing at the Secretariat on Tuesday, considering the high market value these lands commanded in the district currently. He noted that the basic value of the land on which the compensation was calculated now, was always found to be lower than the market value prevailing in the area.

Speaking to reporters later, Housing Minister Botcha Satyanarayana said that at the meeting, it was also decided to allow the “actual cost” incurred towards levelling of house sites instead of the stipulated uniform amount of Rs 5,000 against each site. However, only machines would have to be used for levelling works as this would be cost effective.

Best Real Estate Websites in India

99acres.com is an Indian site devoted to the Real State industry. On their font page you will find a search facility that will help you find a good property to buy, be it residential or commercial. Your search may be based on location, budget and number of bedrooms. On the site you will also see huge lists of projects involving apartments, houses, commercial offices and shops. If you want to find a buyer for your property, that is also possible through 99acres.com. An entire section is dedicated to services directed at the NRI segment, including a live chat with the site’s property advisors.

IndiaProperty.com : A resourceful Real State portal, IndiaProperty.com makes it easy to find a property to buy, rent or share with a roommate. It specialises in residential apartments and houses, but retail and office spaces can also be found through their search facilities. Your requirements for a property may be posted online and the site will send you alerts to help you find what you want. You may apply online for home loans that are available to both salaried and self-employed consumers. For your convenience, the portal has special sections dedicated to regions such as Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.

India Housing : India House offers to property seekers a huge array of services and options to help you buy exactly what you need. Their Home Loans section lists five companies that make housing loan products available to customers. Thirty-six regional property dealer lists can be consulted by visitors. They can also check lists of housing companies, home insurance companies, Indian Housing Authorities, home architects, building contractors, moving companies and many others. There are even lists of products and services that you may want to contract after you buy your house, such as interior decoration, modular kitchens, furniture and home audio and video systems.

MagicBricks.com : MagicBricks.com is a huge website aimed at property buyers, sellers and renters. On its homepage you will find search tool that will help you spot a property to buy or rent. It is possible to search for real state agents, builders and projects as well. If you want to sell or rent your house, just register at MagicBricks.com and you will be able to include your property on the site’s listings and find a buyer. On the loan tolls section you will find a search facility that will let you look for good home loan deals. After finding what you need, you may apply online.

RealAcres.com : RealAcres.com is an important Indian Real State site. Its search tool is divided into three types of property: residential, commercial and land or plots. This way, it will be easier for you to find a property that suits your needs. Through the site you will also be able to apply online for both home insurance and home loans. A section especially aimed at Non Resident Indians (NRI) lists several projects that may be of interest to this audience, such as luxurious apartments, residential complexes and weekend homes. Many other helpful services are offered to RealAcres.com visitors, like Real State news, buying and selling tips and property rates.

Indiabulls Properties Plans $286 Million REIT Sale

Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd., India's fourth-biggest developer by market value, may raise S$388.3 million ($286 million) selling units in a real estate investment trust in Singapore, the first such sale by an Indian company.

Indiabulls Real Estate plans to sell 353 million units of Indiabulls Properties Investment Trust at between S$1 and S$1.10 apiece, according to an e-mail sent to investors. Billionaire Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, the world's fourth-richest man, agreed to buy 91 million shares.

Indiabulls is banking on rising demand for office space in Mumbai, India's main trading hub for stocks, bonds, commodities, diamond and bullion, and home to the nation's biggest companies. Office rentals in the city have doubled over the past two years, according to Knight Frank LLP. About 3 percent of offices in Mumbai are vacant, reflecting strong demand, Indiabulls said.

Mittal was among the initial investors in Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd., which last year spun off Indiabulls Real Estate as a separate company.

Ascendas Pte, the manager of Singapore's biggest industrial property trust, raised about $365 million after pricing shares in an Indian property trust at S$1.18 apiece in July last year.

India, the fastest-growing major economy after China, is forecast to expand as much as 8.5 percent in the year to March, according to the central bank. The economy has doubled in the past six years, growing an average 8.7 percent since 2003, according to Bloomberg data.

Initial Properties

The trust will initially acquire two properties being developed by Indiabulls Real Estate's divisions in Mumbai, the company told the Bombay Stock Exchange in February. The units are developing a combined 3.4 million square feet of space for offices, shops and housing in central Mumbai, estimated by Knight Frank to be worth $3.2 billion, the company said.

The trust will give investors 90 percent of distributable income every six months, beginning Sept. 30.

REITs raise money from equity investors to buy property including shopping malls and business parks. They are usually required to pay most of their profit as dividends. Investors buy shares in REITs to dilute the risk of putting money directly into a single real estate project.

Merrill Lynch & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG are arranging the share sale, according to a prospectus filed by Indiabulls Properties to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Presentations to institutional investors start today, with pricing scheduled for next week, according to the e-mail.

Indiabulls Real Estate, which has a land bank of 10,000 acres (4,047 hectares), is developing office space in Mumbai and 15 shopping malls in eight towns including Ahmedabad, Agra and Hyderabad. It is also developing special economic zones, according to the company's Web site.

To contact the reporters on this story: Chia-Peck Wong in Hong Kong at cpwong@bloomberg.net; Darren Boey in Hong Kong at dboey@bloomberg.net.

Kult Infotech launches online real estate bank

Realising the huge potential of internet usage in India, Kult Infotech today launched its new online real estate bank-- www.valuePROPS.com-- which provides comprehensive resource for all real estate topics related to buying, selling and renting with expertise knowledge.

The website offered service of advanced search for preferred area, mapping via GoogleMaps for exactly identifying the selected destination, financial calculations, blogging space and other interesting features that help the user to walk through the entire process from buying and selling to the completion of transactions, a company release here said.

ValuePROPS.com would be the pioneers in launching, for the first time in India, 'a multi lingual interface' dedicated to its users with the best online experience. It would be available in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi.

ValuePROPS.com provided easy access to about 5,000 registered agents, facilitating the customers to buy and sell their property.

This interactive website ensured transparent dealings, revenue sharing model and above all scope for users to validate th data to help other prospective customers.

Currently, the service was dedicated to properties across the southern cities of Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and it had a vision to encompass the whole country in the future, the release added.

Asian real estate market to address climate change

The real estate markets around Asia and the world will transform quickly and adopt "green building practices," both in developing new buildings and improving existing ones, as new government policies drive progress towards addressing climate change and other key environmental issues.

"This transformation will be driven by various combinations of regulation, government incentives and changing market dynamics", according to r.e Design, Asia's first green real estate guide released here today.

"Tenants, in turn will also help drive the Green Real Estate growth through their corporate social responsibility programmes, desire to attract and retain quality employees and aspiration to improve productivity", says the guide that outlines the urgent need for the real estate industry to address the challenges of climate change and sustainability.

"Green buildings are set to become standard practice and we need to quickly understand them, including how they deliver value to us. The uptake of green building practices in India is now quick and real estate practices are changing accordingly", said Simon Carter, author of the guide and Regional Head of Sustainability Asia Pacific for Collier International, leading property consulting companies.

India currently has about 26 built green buildings covering close to 11 mn square feeet. Out of these five buildings have secured platinum or gold Leed ratings.

Currently, 218 buildings have registered themselves to obtain a green certificate, with Mumbai leading the pack with 51 buildings, followed by Chennai at 35.Bangalore 12 and Hyderabad has close to 8 buildings registered for receiving the certification.

Ramky group all set for Rs 1,000 cr solar foray

The Rs 1,700-crore Ramky group, a multi-disciplinary company focussing on construction, infrastructure development, waste management, design-build-own-operate projects, real estate, infrastructure consultancy, finance and investment, is all set to venture into manufacturing of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. Having a market cap of $3 billion, the company would be investing about Rs 1,000 crore for the proposed solar cell plant, to come up at the Fab City, Hyderabad.

Interestinlgy, the Fab City has attracted over 16 solar manufacturing Companies, located on over 1,200 acres, and will soon be adding three more Companies in the next few months. The investment by these three new Companies is expected to generate about $2 billion.

‘’We are in talks with the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) for land at the Fab City for the proposed plant. It would have an initial capacity of 50 mega watts which would be scaled up to 100 mega watts in the next one year,’’ sources close to the know said. Incidentally, the company is planning to raise the required amout by divesting 10-15% of the promoter’s stake to part-finance this project, sources added. The project is expected to be commissioned in the next 8-10 months.

On the technology front, the company is in talks with a host of providers including Q-Cells, which is claimed to be world’s largest manufacturer of PV modules. Q-Cells’ core business is development, production and marketing of high-quality mono and multi-crystalline photovoltaic cell besides developing additional important technologies through partnerships for commercialisation of these technologies.

‘’Apart from Q-Cells, we are also evaluating other technology providers for a whole host of services for the solar project,’’ sources said adding that an in-house research team would also be in place and working independently.

Meanwhile, the company is also planning to invest about Rs 15 crore for setting a lead recycling-acid battery facility in Hyderabad. This plant, to be located on about two acres, would be used by battery manufacturers after refilling. Currently, the project is being evaluated by the state Pollution Control Board.

Realty dreams of small, mid-sized cos crumble

Grappling with a slowdown across segments, the Indian property market is heading towards the next phase of consolidation. Liquidity crunch in the real estate market is beginning to drive many mid-sized and small developers to scrounge for cover.

Many want to liquidate their land and incomplete projects by selling them to bigger developers or private equity players even at lower valuations. What's forcing them to take this step is a stagnant market, with property rates undergoing major correction in some cities. Around 15 deals in real estate sector have fallen through in the past two months with investors developing a cold feet, said industry officials. Consider a few cases. A mid-sized builder at Chembur in Mumbai has put its 14-floor commercial property in central Mumbai on the block. The developer wants to raise around Rs 150 crore which would help him complete his upcoming project.

A Hyderabad-based real estate group has started advertising to attract high networth investors to generate Rs 50 crore against bulk purchase of its housing project in the city. A small developer in Mumbai, pushed to a corner on account of mounting payables for construction material, is now offering its project at Juhu-Versova in Mumbai at about 35% discount to the current market price. In Delhi, some developers have approached property consultant to sell their income generating commercial properties to finance some of the unfinished projects.